An evil fairy named Maleficent seeks revenge for not being invited to Aurora's christening and curses the newborn princess, foretelling that she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel's spindle and die before sunset on her sixteenth birthday.

Determined to prevent this, three good fairies raise Aurora as a peasant in order to protect her, patiently awaiting her sixteenth birthday—the day the spell can only be broken by a kiss from her true love, Prince Phillip.

For several years, Walt Disney had struggled to find a suitable actress to voice the princess and nearly abandoned the film entirely until Costa was discovered by composer Walter Schumann.

Aurora herself received negative reviews from both film and feminist critics for her passivity and similarities to Snow White, and would remain Disney's last princess until The Little Mermaid's Ariel debuted 30 years later in 1989.

Filmmaker Walt Disney had long been struggling to adapt the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty" into a full-length animated film for several years, intending to base the project on both Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm's versions of the story.

[15] Costa was attending a dinner party for the entertainment industry, to which she had been invited by a friend who was hoping to introduce her to some influential people,[15] where she performed the popular standard "When I Fall in Love".

[19] The performance was heard by film composer Walter Schumann who, impressed by her vocals, approached Costa about possibly voicing Aurora and inviting her to audition the following morning.

[11][19] The filmmakers likened the situation to English actress Vivien Leigh successfully feigning a southern accent for her role as Scarlet O'Hara in the film Gone With the Wind (1939).

[19] Schumann, the composer responsible for discovering Costa, eventually departed the project due to creative differences with Disney,[22] and ultimately died before the film was completed.

[15] However, with only 18 spoken lines, Aurora speaks less than any other main character in a full-length Disney animated feature—aside from Dumbo, who is completely silent[23]—and has absolutely no dialogue once she is awakened from her deep sleep.

[8] Ultimately, Costa's performance in Sleeping Beauty—and Walt Disney himself—inspired her to pursue a full-time career as a professional opera singer,[5] advising her "Mary, just remember the three Ds... Dedication, Determination, and Discipline, and you'll achieve your Dreams!".

[32] While other Sleeping Beauty animators struggled to adapt to artistic director Eyvind Earle's unprecedented preference for detailed backgrounds, Davis himself rather embraced this new style.

[33] With a dignified, angular shape that complemented Earle’s vertical and horizontal backgrounds, the princess was "more refined" than preceding Disney heroines, and thus required much more attention to detail than any animated character before her.

[39] Originally, in the Danish and the first Latin American Spanish dubbings, Aurora's speaking voices, Ellen Winther and Estrellita Díaz respectively, were meant to sing the princess' songs as well.

[43] Leigh Butler of Tor.com argues that the role of "protagonist" rightfully belongs to the three good fairies because they "make all the critical decisions in the film, the ones which drive the action", while Aurora acts as little more than a pawn.

"[43] Upon initial viewing of Sleeping Beauty, a writer for Anibundel originally dismissed Aurora as "the ultimate Disney princess in the most negative and passive sense of the stereotype ... playing no part whatsoever in her own outcome."

"[45] In his book Multiculturalism and the Mouse: Race and Sex in Disney Entertainment, author Douglas Brode wrote that the fairies' raising of Aurora mirrors "precisely that sort of women's commune numerous feminists experimented with throughout the seventies.

"[35] In his book Debating Disney: Pedagogical Perspectives on Commercial Cinema, Douglas Brode agreed that Aurora is "a model of modern (1950s) female glamour", comparing her long blonde hair to that of actress Brigitte Bardot while likening her gown to the work of fashion designer Christian Dior.

"[47] Similarly, Carrie R. Wheadon, writing for Common Sense Media, interpreted Aurora's arousal by a handsome prince as being symbolic of a young woman's "transition to adulthood and sexual awakening.

Angered at not receiving an invitation to her christening, an evil fairy, Maleficent, curses Aurora to prick her finger on a spinning wheel's spindle and die before sunset on her 16th birthday.

Merryweather and the other two fairies, Flora and Fauna, take extra precautions by raising the princess in a secluded cottage under the alias Briar Rose to protect her from Maleficent until her sixteenth birthday arrives.

However, her inexperience with magic leads to several consequences, which forces Lord Duke into warning Stefan, Leah, King Hubert, and Prince Phillip, who were all coming back from a royal conference, about the giant chickens, green pigs, and cows.

[1] During the 1950s, Disney received "harsh criticism" for depicting both Cinderella and Aurora as "naïve and malleable" characters, and failing to acknowledge the ways in which women's roles in society had evolved since Snow White's debut in 1937.

"[71] Dismissing the character as "barely more than a cipher", Leigh Butler of Tor.com panned Aurora as "a Barbie doll knockoff who does nothing the whole film but sing wistfully about Finding Her Man, before becoming the ultimate passive Damsel in Distress".

[47] Mic's Melissa Hugel believes that the negative reception instigated by Aurora's passive role as a woman in Sleeping Beauty also contributed to this hiatus,[67] earning the character a reputation as one of Disney's worst princesses.

Author Mikayla Sloan enthused that "The lines of Aurora's dress are flawless and her shoulders are set off beautifully" while "Her hair is effortlessly wavy and her accessories accentuate her features perfectly.

[97] On Cosmopolitan's list of "the 14 Hottest Disney Princesses", Aurora was ranked 12th, with author Frank Kobola dismissing the character as "a snoozefest" and comparing her to "that girl in college who was always taking naps".

[5] Costa has achieved great success as an opera singer;[20] The New York Times hailed her as "one of the most beautiful women to grace the operatic stage",[101] while Paul MacInnes of The Guardian referred to her as "One of America's finest sopranos".

[109] Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter said that Fanning brought a "diamond-in-the-rough aspect to Aurora’s loveliness", and added that "she’s no conventional Disney Princess but a child of nature with a strong sense of justice and an innate toughness.

"[111] Empire's Helen O'Hara was pleased that in Mistress of Evil, "Fanning manages to occasionally find something useful for Aurora to do: no mean feat in a character essentially designed to be a simpering blank.